Seeing Double
by XoXKeii-chanXoX
Summary: There's a new girl in school and she seems a bit...Different. When she seems to know a bit more than Haru had anticipated about a certain Cat Figurine, she gets a little suspicious. Longer sum in 1st chapter. DISCONTINUED! :
1. The New Girl

_**Hey! Idea just popped into my head and I wanted to get it down before I forgot it! Can't exactly guarantee I'll get this updated as quickly as most of my other Fics, but I'll try as best as I can. Hope you enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: I only own the made-up characters in this FanFic and nothing else. Unfortunately, I do not own The Cat Returns.**_

_**Summary: There's a new girl in school and she seems a bit...Different. When she seems to know a bit more than Haru had anticipated about a certain Cat Figurine, she gets a little suspicious. On top of that, this new girl seems to switch personalities quite frequently. Haru decides to dig a little deeper. But, will that cost her more than she can handle?**_

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><p><em><em>"Haru? Haru! Wake up!" My mother's voice resonated up the staircase. I reached over and slammed my fist down on my cow-shaped alarm clock, making the annoying shrieking stop. Between that and my mother's shouting, my headache was slowly getting worse. I groggily sat up in bed and rubbed my eyes at the blinding sunlight coming from my window. I got out of bed slowly, grabbing a few tissues in the process. I had acquired a cold the day before and was not looking forward to the day. Despite my complaints, however, I forced myself to get dressed and trudge down the stairs. My mother looked at me with concern.

"Haru, do you really want to go to school today? You know, you can stay home if you're still not feeling well." She offered. I smiled at her.

"No, mom. I'm fine. It's just a small cold."

"Which can easily escalate into something worse if you're not careful." She countered. I shook my head reassuringly.

"I have to go, mom. I was almost late again yesterday and I don't need another repeat." I said with a small chuckle. I dressed warmly, grabbed my bag, and ran out the door. I stumbled a bit on the accumulating ice out on the sidewalk outside the house. I slipped backwards, awaiting the impact of my body and the ice, when I felt someone catch me from behind.

"Careful!" I heard the person say as they helped me to my feet. I turned around to find a girl beaming at me. She had green, short, spiky hair that went down to the bottom of her ears, and was wearing what looked like a shirt and vest with a matching tie, and a jacket to accompany them. She was wearing simple skinny jeans and a pair of converse shoes. I smiled at her as I regained my composure.

"Thanks a lot." I said. She nodded. "You're not from around here, are you?"

"Just moved here a few days ago! Name's Ren!" She said as she held out her hand. I gladly shook it.

"Haru! Haru Yoshioka!"

"Well, Haru, why were you in such a rush to get out of your house this morning?" She asked.

"Well, I was late for school, you see and…" My voice trailed off as I immediately realized how late I actually was now. I noticed Ren smirking at me. She chuckled before saying,

"You should probably get going then. I'll catch up with you later. Any place special you wanna meet?" She suggested. I thought about it for a minute before saying,

"The Crossroads, in the center of town." I smiled before running madly down the road to the school. I glanced back to wave to my new acquaintance and continued down the road. I couldn't believe that I was going to be late…_again_…

I ran through the doors to the school and made it to class a good 20 minutes late. I tried my best to sneak my way in, but unfortunately, as fate would have it, my teacher irritably blurted out,

"Haru, please just take your seat. We all can see you sneaking in."

"Yes sir!" I stiffened as I replied, and hurried over to my seat behind Hiromi as laughter from my classmates filled the room. My face reddened as I tried hard to focus on what my teacher was explaining of the lesson.

"Late again?" I heard Hiromi say. It was more of a statement than a question. I sunk deeper in my chair and continued focusing on the lesson at hand.

After school left out, Hiromi and I started up a conversation on our way home. I immediately thought about Ren this morning. I decided to mention her to Hiromi to see if she had heard anything about her.

"So, have you seen this new girl on my block, yet? Her name's Ren." I asked. Hiromi just looked at me with a puzzled look on her face.

"No, I haven't. Is she nice?" She asked. I proceeded in telling her my situation this morning, earning a few stifled laughs at my predicament. She listened otherwise and decided to keep an eye out for her.

"I'm meeting her at the crossroads today. How about you come with?" I suggested. She nodded her head furiously, obviously interested in getting to know someone decided to head straight to the Crossroads on our way home. When we got there, we saw said acquaintance sitting at a nearby dining table outside the one café. However, she didn't look very happy just sitting there. When she saw us, however, she perked up immediately. We ran over to where she was sitting and took a seat across from her.

"Hey! Make it to school in time?" She said with a smirk.

"Unfortunately, no… Had to sneak into class…" I replied in annoyance.

"Yeah, and we all saw how that turned out." Hiromi mused. I playfully punched her in the arm in response, which received us a chuckle from Ren.

"Oh, sorry! This is Hiromi." I introduced her when I had realized they haven't officially met yet. She nodded in response.

"Nice to meet you." She replied. It got awkwardly quiet suddenly, for we didn't actually plan on going anywhere after we met at the Crossroads. I decided to break the silence.

"So, Ren, what grade are you in?" I asked.

"I'm a junior this year, but need to take an extra year of intermediate classes." Was her reply. I was a little confused at this, so she explained further. "Since I moved in the middle of the year, I haven't gotten the full education on my current classes at my old school. And, since this class doesn't cover those particular subjects this year yet, I have to take extra classes. It's a bit of a drag…" She said, obviously annoyed with the fact.

"Man, that must be hard…" Was all I managed to say. I wasn't sure how to reply to something like that.

"So, enough about me. What about you guys? I'm assuming you're both in the same class." She said, the mischievous smirk coming back.

"Yeah! We're both juniors too!" Hiromi chimed in. She seemed a little _too_ enthused to answer. I chuckled to myself at her sudden need to be cheerful. Ren seemed to think so too because Hiromi received a skeptical look from Ren.

"I see. Well, then I guess I'll see you guys sometime in school. Keep an eye out for me!" She said as she stood up. "I should get going. I know we haven't talked for more than like 10 minutes, but I promised my dad I'd be home today at a normal time." She said. "I should be in school within the course of the week. Hope to see you guys again soon." She winked, picked up her bag, and left down the street. We waved at her as she left and turned around ourselves to head home. On our way, we went over the small conversation.

"I wonder what her parents consider _normal_ when it comes to being home by a certain time…" Hiromi mused. I was thinking the same thing, but decided not to stress it. When we reached Hiromi's house, I suddenly realized something.

"My bag!" I exclaimed. "I must've left it back at the table! I'll call you later, Hiromi!" I ran off before she could answer. I was out of breath by the time I got to the Crossroads, and decided to take a break. I sat down at the same table and let my heart beat steady to normal. When sitting there, I happened to look over and noticed a big, fluffy ball of fur on the one chair. I smiled and walked up to it.

"Hey, Fatso." I said. His ear pricked as he turned his head around slowly to glare at me in annoyance. I chuckled. "Nice to see you, too." He nodded in response. "I was thinking of visiting you guys along the course of these next few days. Care to lead the way?" I said with a smirk.

"Think you can keep up this time?" He retorted as he immediately jumped down from his chair and started running off in the direction of the sanctuary. I ran to catch up with him, making sure to keep close enough. We went through the familiar twists and turns of the alleyways and up the rooftops. When we finally came out to the alley that led to the white archway, we slowed down. I followed Muta through the archway and felt the familiar sensation of shrinking down to size.

"I'll never get tired of that." I said with a grin. I ran up to the Bureau doors and knocked lightly on the green double doors. It wasn't even more than a few seconds when the doors opened to reveal the one person who I wanted to see more than anything. He smiled when he saw me.

"Haru. So glad to see you again. Please, come in." Baron invited me in and I gladly accepted. I sat down on the couch as he went to prepare me a cup of tea. When he brought me my tea and we were situated, we started talking. I told him how school was going and asked how business was for the Bureau, and other various practical things. I then brought up Ren.

"So, there's this new girl in school. Her name's Ren." I said. He seemed to get quiet at this, but I hadn't even noticed the tinge of concern on his face. "She just transferred here and is in the same class as us. I only know that much about her. She's pretty sheltered. But, at the same time, very outgoing. She reminds me of a tomboy in a way." I chuckled at that last statement which earned me a smirk from Baron. I sat sipping at my tea when there was a knock at the door. I jumped up and offered to get it.

"Coming!" I exclaimed as I happily skipped over to the door. I opened it, expecting to see Toto or Muta. Quite the opposite actually. I opened the door to find Ren staring blankly back at me.

"W-What are you d-doing here?" she stuttered nervously. I could ask her the same thing, but kept my mouth shut. I decided not to ask her and just give my reasoning.

"I'm here just visiting an old friend." I replied blankly. She stumbled over her words a bit before finding the words to reply back.

"Well, I should just go then. I was just here to ask Baron a few questions." She said. I was a bit taken back that she knew Baron well enough to speak like that of him in context.

"No, it's alright." I said as I glanced back at Baron, giving him a skeptical look. "I was just about to leave anyway." I turned to Baron. "Thank you for the tea, Baron. I'll see you again soon." I replied flatly before collecting my things and heading out the door, almost forcing Ren out of my way. I only glanced back once to see both of them looking at me with apologetic expressions. I just whipped around and rushed out of the Sanctuary, returning to my normal size in the process. On my way home, I couldn't help but think,

"_If he knew who she was already, why didn't he speak up when I brought up her name?" _I decided not to think too much of it and went directly home. Sleep came pretty quick. Before I went to sleep, I pondered how I'm going to approach Ren tomorrow and ask her a few questions myself.

"There's more to this than I thought…" I thought out loud, before falling right to sleep.

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><p><em><strong>Well, hope you enjoyed. Not much to the plot so far, but it's a start. Like I said, I won't be able to update as fast as I normally would, but I'll post as much as possible. R&amp;R, Comment and Criticize! Ciao! ^_^<strong>_


	2. A Strange Encounter

_**Hey! Like I said, it'll take a while to get a natural schedule going for this story due to other various events crowding my lifestyle, so bear with me!**_

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing of The Cat Returns.**_

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><p>The next morning, I made sure to get up extra early. Even my mother was amazed that I managed to get myself up so early. While we were eating, my phone started going off. I quickly pulled it out and noticed it was Hiromi.<p>

"What could she want this early in the morning…?" I thought out loud. I lazily flipped it open. "Yes, Hiromi?" I asked flatly.

"Hey! Can we get an early start this morning?" she asked. I sat quiet for a minute, a bit confused."Why?" I asked. "Did you forget your cleanup duty again?" I asked with a smirk.

"No!" She replied, obviously taken back by the sudden accusation. "For your information, Tsuge has a match this morning and I don't want to miss it!"

"And, I'm supposed to go with because…?" I said.

"He needs all the support he can get!" She finished. I thought about it for a minute. If I went now, I could avoid running into Ren and risking any awkwardness.

"Fine… I'll be at your place in ten minutes. Just be ready when I get there." I said flatly. She made a few squeals of joy before hanging up. I sighed, took a few more bites of my breakfast, and left to meet Hiromi. "The things I do for her…" I mused.

The match seemed to go by faster than anticipated. However, I was more focused on another topic entirely. During the entire duration of the match, my mind was focused on the event of which happened the night before. Eventually, Hiromi noticed my uneasiness and decided to ask me what was wrong on our way to the school. I explained the events that were simultaneously playing out in my imagination.

"Really? She knew who Baron was?" Hiromi asked. I had introduced Hiromi a while back to the Bureau members due to some skeptical occurrences that happened to keep reoccurring.

I nodded in response. "Yeah… And when I had mentioned her to Baron, he hadn't said a word. It was almost as if he knew her from the very beginning."

"Maybe he's hiding something." She suggested. I went silent upon hearing this and remained silent for the rest of the walk to the school.

When we entered the school, Hiromi had to run off somewhere and said she'd meet me in our first class. I decided to rush to the classroom as to get there early. But, on my way, I accidentally ran into someone right outside the door. We were both propelled backwards and various folders and papers went flying everywhere. When the confetti of papers subsided, I quickly jumped up.

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry!" I repeatedly apologized. "Are you ok…?" My voice trailed off when I realized who it was. "Ren! I'm so sorry! Here, let me help you!" I reached down to help her up. She swatted my hand away, however, and helped herself up.

"Look, Kid, I don't know who the hell you are, but I don't need your help. Get out of my way." She furiously stated before storming off, shoving me aside in the process. I was taken back by her sudden outburst, but more about the fact that she didn't even acknowledge the fact that she even knew who I was!

_"Is this supposed to be a joke?" _I thought. I quickly resided to the classroom, took my seat, and waited for the morning bell to ring, receiving some awkward glances from everyone in the room.

When our morning classes ended, I noticed that both Hiromi and I had shortened schedules that day, so we decided to skip lunch, finish our last class or two, and head out for a late lunch at the Crossroads. We sat down inside one of our favorite cafes and started chatting about today's events so far.

"So, do you think Tsuge will make it through to the finals?" I asked grinned and nodded furiously. "Of course he will! He's so amazing, the judges will _have_ to let him through! If they don't, they'd be making a _huge _mistake!" She practically growled her last statement. I couldn't help but smirk.

"Well, tell him that I hope he gets through. And give him my best." I said. Just then, I happened to look out the window and see Ren walking up the street.

"Hey, it's your friend." I heard hiromi say. "You should probably go make things right and apologize for this morning." She suggested.

"Yeah…Probably…" I said quietly. I couldn't help but think that she'd ignore my very existence once again and completely blow me off. Worth a shot though. I told Hiromi I'd be right back and ran out the door to catch Ren before she went too far up the road.

"Hey! Ren!" I called while running to catch up to her. She stopped dead in her tracks and turned to me. She smiled when she saw me and came up to me happily.

"Haru! Hey! She said with a grin.

"Look, about this morning, I'm really sorry for practically plowing you over…" I said.

She just waved it off. "No, it's fine! I should've been watching where I was going. No harm done."

"Well…I have to ask; Why did you deny that you knew who I was?" I asked. She went silent of a moment.

"I said that? Sorry, I honestly don't remember saying it." She stated.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Oh well, I guess it doesn't really matter. Just as long as you forgive me."

She grinned and nodded her head before waving and turning to go home. I smiled and went back into the café to finish up everything with Hiromi. When we were both done with our food, we decided to both go to the Bureau. It's been a long time since Hiromi has seen the gang.

"I think you could use the extra walk, Hiromi." I mused. She playfully punched me as I did the same back to her. We found ourselves chasing each other around the streets like two little children playing a game of tag before we even thought about heading to the Bureau. After a while of chasing each other around, we decided to head there.

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><p>"Oh yeah? Well come and say that to my face, you Birdbrain!"<p>

"Oh, come _on, _Muta! Can't you think of something other than 'Birdbrain?'"

"Yeah! Come here and say that to my face, you Chicken!"

I sat silently sipping my tea while the never-ending battle between the crow and the feline was continuing outside and steadily getting louder.

"I see those two haven't let up any…" Hiromi said, whilst sipping her own cup of equally amazing-tasting tea. Baron only responded with a sigh.

I only chuckled. "It makes these visits more entertaining." Baron smiled and nodded.

"You got that right!" Hiromi chimed in.

"Would anybody like any more tea?" Baron asked. Hiromi shook her head. "No thanks, Baron. As much as I love your tea, I'd better get home in case my mother gets a bit worried." She stood up after saying this.

"Of course. Thank you for stopping by." Baron said as Hiromi gathered her items and turned to leave. When she left, we heard Muta and Toto stop their quarreling for a moment, and start up again. Baron couldn't take much more of it and got up to silence their ceaseless bickering. I grabbed a hold of his sleeve before he could get very far.

"Don't worry about it, Baron." I said with a small smile. "Let them bicker. It's not as if they're going to stop any time soon."

He smiled. "Yes, but I do wish they'd be a little more quiet when they do so." I chuckled as he sat down next to me. "Haru, I hope last night wasn't too awkward for you. There were a few…matters regarding my past I had to deal with." I smiled at him.

"It's perfectly fine." I replied. "I shouldn't have stormed off like I did. I apologize." I felt a bit embarrassed at how I acted the night before. I felt Baron tip my head up by my chin.

"Haru, you have nothing to apologize for. You were confused and it's perfectly normal to feel that way." He said calmly. He tipped my head forward and kissed me on the forehead.

"Thank you, Baron." I said. We sat for a while longer, enjoying each other's company when I accidentally fell asleep on Baron's shoulder. I hadn't even realized it when he placed his arm around me to pull me closer to him.

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><p>"Haru. Haru." I heard Baron trying to wake me up. I stirred a bit before my eyes fluttered open. My face suddenly got extremely red as I realized what had actually happened.<p>

"Baron! Um…what time is it?" I asked frantically. He chuckled.

"Almost ten. You should probably be getting home." He replied. Just then, Muta and Toto came bursting in, both covered from head to toe in…_snow?_

"It's snowing?" I exclaimed. "For how long?" I asked. Toto and Muta just looked at each other before Toto replied,

"For probably about half an hour now. It's already up to about half a foot, and quickly coming down faster. I highly recommend not going anywhere the rest of the night."

"Great…Just what I need…" I said. "Baron, I hate to burden you, but is it alright if I spend the night here? I'll leave first thing in the morning as to not bother you at all."

He came up to me and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. "Haru, you are by no means a burden. You may stay here for as long as this storm holds out. You should probably call your mother, though." He suggested.

I nodded in response. "I'll tell her I'm staying at a friend's house because I got caught in the snow on the way home." I quickly pulled my phone out and called my mother. The phone rang a few times before I heard her pick up.

"Mom-?"

"HARU!" She cut me off. "Where are you? Are you alright? Do you need me to come get you?" She continued asking similar questions.

"MOM!" I intervened. "It's alright. I just got caught in the snow on the way home and decided to spend the night at Hiromi's house. Don't worry, I'll be fine. I'll just borrow some clothes from her."

"Well…alright. As long as you're safe." She replied. I explained that I'd be home tomorrow morning and to not worry and hung up shortly after.

"Thank you, Baron." I said. I smirked. "I should probably inform Hiromi that I'm "staying at her house" for the night, as well." He chuckled as I did so.

Hiromi agreed to not say a word to my mother and that I was indeed at her house. Thankfully, Baron had some leftover garments of clothing from his days with Louise and had a spare nightgown for me to wear and an extra bedroom. I went to bed soon after calling my mother and Hiromi and fell asleep almost instantly.

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><p><em><strong>Whew…ok, so I'm actually quite satisfied with this chapter. Hope you all think so as well! As always, R&amp;R, comments, and criticism is ALWAYS welcome! Hope you enjoyed! Ciao! ^_^<strong>_


	3. DISCONTINUED!

_**I am so sorry, folks, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to discontinue this story. I wasn't really sure where I was going with this, or where I was going to lead up to…**_

_**Which really distresses me. **_

_**This is the second story I've ended up scrapping…**_

_**I apologize once again for the inconvenience.**_

_**I am currently going to work on a Ghost Hunt fan fic, hoping to continue with this one and not worry about discontinuing that one as well.**_

_**I want to thank those of you who DID read my story up until this point, and I hope you can forgive me!**_

_**Love you all!**_

_**Hope to see you reading my next fanfic soon!**_

_**Ciao! ^_^**_


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